Barkakana is a small township situated on the outskirts of the district town of Ramgarh Cantonment in Jharkhand. It is surrounded by hills in south and has Ramgarh town in East. The river Damodar flows on its north.

As of 2001[update] India census,[2] Barkakana had a population of 16,872. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Barkakana has an average literacy rate of 68%, higher than the national average of 59.5%; with 60% of the males and 40% of females literate. 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Barkakana also serves as a marketplace and transit point to the people of a good amount of villages (Teliyatu, Masmohna, Chotkakana and Piri to name a few) surrounding it. In recent times, a number of small-scale as well as medium-scale industries have come up in and around Barkakana, due to proximity to Damodar river, easy and cheap availability of land and presence of good transport facilities.

Barkakana railway station is under Dhanbad division under East Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. The Railway Control Room covering Barkakana section of Dhanbad division, having 34 stations is located here. It is also well connected to the district town Ramgarh Cantonment via a four-lane road, which in turn is well connected via a grid of National Highways. Barkakana also houses a Central Repair Shop of Central Coalfields Limited. A residential area for its emplyoees has come up, locally famous as N.T.S. Barkakana

Barkakana has got quite a good number of educational institutions but only till Senior-secondary level. Prominent schools among them are DAV Public School NTS Barkakana, Army Public School (located on outskirts),and Kendriya Vidyalaya. Sri Narayan High School,SVD Public School and Saraswati Vidyamandir are among others.